Working with imagery from vernacular visual culture, these paintings investigate aesthetic and class boundaries, contradictory definitions of beauty and the complexity of sentimentality in painting. The sources of inspiration for this work are found in drugstore gift items, greeting cards, the devotional imagery of Catholicism and the history of western painting. While some viewers celebrate or dismiss this array of images as kitsch (tasteless, sentimental or ostentatious) it functions as an important emotional reference point for others. The work juxtaposes the sentimental and grotesque, the absurd and serious, with each painting striking a different balance between the opposite poles. Materially, these paintings employ a variety of paints and media including oil, alkyd, acrylic, fabric and glitter. Just as the images are drawn from the worlds of popular culture and fine art, material boundaries collapse through the use of craft materials in combination with traditional painting techniques.
Colleen Kiely was born in Providence, RI and maintains a studio in Somerville, MA. She received a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Simmons College in Boston.
2006
The Trustman Gallery, Simmons College, Boston, MA, “Between What I See and What I Say”
2003
Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA, "On the Road"
2002
Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "Devotion"
2001
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, "glimmer"
1998
Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art, Boston, "Peepers"
2005
Artist’s Space, NY, NY, “Night of 1,000 Drawings”
The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. "Pretty/Sweet: The Sentimental Image in Contemporary Art”
2004
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, “Exquisite Corpse Project”
Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery, "The 18th Drawing Show"
2003
Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "As Small as Possible"
Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "Compendium"
2002
The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA. "Painting in Boston: 1950-2000"
Zg Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL, "Gallery Artists"
Icon Contemporary Art, Brunswick, ME, "Bowdoin College Faculty Exhibition"
2001
Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery, "The 17th Drawing Show”
2000
The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, "Lois Foster Exhibition of Boston Area Artists"
ArtLink @ Sotheby's International Young Art (on-line exhibition)
1999
Richard Anderson Fine Art, NY, NY, "The Passion/Passions of Art"
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, "Collectors Collect Contemporary: 1990-99"
The Boston Athenaeum, "Front Line: Contemporary Draftsmen from New England"
The Somerville Museum, "A Survey of Local Contemporary Works", Somerville, MA
Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA, "The Edge of Vision, The Edge of Sight"
University of MA at Dartmouth, "Selections: Works by Fifteen NEFA Fellowship Winners"
1998
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "Museum School Traveling Scholars 1997"
Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT, "Women in the Visual Arts Annual Nat'l Competition"
1997
Berkshire Art Museum, MA, "Exhibition of Works on Paper"
Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery, "The Drawing Show"
1996
Berkshire Art Museum, MA, "Painting & Sculpture"
Artspace, New Haven, CT, "New Work '96"
1995
Mario Diacono, Boston, "Rites of Paint"
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, 2005
Mary Ingraham Bunting Fellowship, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, 2000/01
Massachusetts Cultural Council/Somerville Arts Council Grant, 2000
MacDowell Colony Fellowships, 1999, 1997, 1996
New England Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellowship, 1998
School of the Museum of Fine Arts Traveling Alumni Fellowship, 1997
Temin, Christine, The Boston Globe, "How Sweet it is…or is it?”", 2/13/05
Mogilevich, Mariana, Art New England, "Colleen Kiely: On the Road", April/May ‘04
New American Paintings: The Ninth Open Studios Northeastern Competition,
Number 50, Open Studios Press, Wellesley, MA, Juror: Rachel Lafo
Stange, Eric, Ch. 2 WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston Arts", interview, 11/27/02
Lloyd, Ann Wilson, "The New Painting," in Painting in Boston: 1950-2000, ed. R. Lafo, N. Capasso
and J. Uhrhane, 197-98. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000
Unger, Miles, The Boston Globe, "Kiely's Works Offer Unnerving Mixtures", 4/20/01
McQuaid, Cate, The Boston Globe, "Colleen Kiely: Glimmer", 4/12/01
The Radcliffe Quarterly, The Radcliffe Questionnaire, Spring '01
New American Paintings: The Sixth Open Studios Northeastern Competition,
Number 32, Open Studios Press, Wellesley, MA, Juror: Jessica Morgan
Sherman, Mary, Boston Sunday Herald, "Kiely Brings a Cutting Edge to Cute", 4/15/01
McQuaid, Cate, The Boston Globe, "Artists Explore Transformation, Real & Implied", 12/00
Buskirk, Martha, Art in America, "Report from Boston: Art Around the Hub", June '99
Meyer, Joshua, Art New England, "The Edge of Vision/The Edge of Sight", April/May '99
Unger, Miles, Art New England, "Colleen Kiely at Judy Ann Goldman Fine Art", Feb./Mar. '99
McQuaid, Cate, The Boston Globe, "Beyond Cute", 10/22/98
The Boston Athenaeum, MA
The Bowdoin College Museum of Art, ME
The DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
Fidelity Corporation, Boston, MA
Kenneth Freed, Boston, MA
Barbara Cole Lee, Boston, MA
Olivia & John Parker, Boston, MA
Sonesta International Corporation, Boston, MA
Joan & Roger Sonnabend,Boston, MA
Donald & Jeanne Stanton, Boston, MA
Represented by ZG Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL - www.zggallery.com
Represented in The Boston Drawing Project at Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA – www.bernardtoalegallery.com
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, M.F.A. Painting
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, B.F.A. Painting
